Defence counsel, DPP making efforts for release of Sarjo Jallow Says a close relative

Lawyer Antouman A.B. Gaye, defence counsel, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), are said to have intervened to secure the release of Mr. Momodou Sarjo Jallow, the former deputy minister of foreign affairs, from the custody of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), according to a close family source.

When the family of the detained former deputy minister was contacted for an update on Saturday, 5 November, the source told this reporter that Mr. Jallow is still being detained incommunicado at the NIA for 67 days. ‘‘We had met all the conditions that were requested but they told us that one thing is remaining which is his travelling documents and that one was stolen by unidentified men in civilian clothes,’’ disclosed the source.

The source stressed that the detention of their loved one is unlawful, adding that they have written to the Attorney General a few days ago requesting for an intervention but have not yet received any response. ‘‘Both his lawyer and the entire family members were denied access to him,” he further disclosed.

It could be recalled that family of Mr. Jallow, who was also a former ambassador of the Gambia to the AU, sued the state for his release. A motion was filed by Lawyer Antouman A.B Gaye, his counsel, seeking for an order to unconditionally release him from NIA headquarters in Banjul or grant him bail. On 17 October 2016, Justice Otaba of the Special Criminal Division of the High Court in Banjul granted bail to Mr. Sarjo Jallow in the sum of D200,000, with two Gambian sureties, with a property of the like sum. The trial judge also ordered for the accused person to submit his travelling documents to the Principal Registrar of the high court and for the sureties should swear to an affidavit of means.

It was earlier reported that Jallow’s travelling documents were also taken away by men who came to arrest him on Friday, 2 September, 2016 at his residence at Manjai Kunda.

His house, according to the wife, was burgled twice and that his personal laptop was taken away during the burglary.

However, at the time of going to press, efforts to reach his lawyer on the issue could not materialise.